Binangonan Catholic College

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“The Seven Holy Sacraments”

Intoduction

What is a sacrament?

There are seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, which according to Catholic
theology were instituted by Jesus and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen
as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those who receive them with the
proper disposition. Wikipedia

It is also means (in Roman Catholic use) the consecrated elements of the Eucharist, especially
the bread or Host.

Why are Sacraments important?

The sacraments are sacred rituals, instituted (or at least approved) by Jesus, in which God's grace
is instilled by the Holy Spirit. The seven sacraments are baptism, confession, Eucharist,
confirmation, matrimony, ordination, and anointing of the sick. Each of these is important in
themselves.Jun 11, 2016

What Are Sacraments?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 'The sacraments are efficacious signs of
grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us'
(#1131).
This is a complex definition, so let's break it down.

 The word efficacious means 'effective.' This means that according to Catholic teachings,
sacraments do what they say they do. Because of God's power, they simply work,
Catholics believe.
 A sign is an object, word, or gesture that points to something beyond itself. According to
Catholic teaching, sacraments use all kinds of human objects, words, and gestures, but all
of these point beyond themselves to something greater, to God and His grace.
 Catholics define grace as God's free gift of His presence, His help, and His salvation.
Catholics believe, then, that sacraments point to and are channels of God's grace. They work as
an effective means of communication between God and His people.
According to the Catholic faith, the sacraments are a gift from God, given through the Church as
an outpouring of His love. Through the sacraments, God justifies and sanctifies His people (i.e.,
He saves them and makes them holy), He meets His people where they are in order to draw them
up to Him, He pours out His grace, He builds up the Church and He receives worship.
Let's continue. According to Catholic doctrine:

 The sacraments are instituted by Christ. Christ instituted all seven sacraments as ways in
which He could be present to His people even after His Ascension into Heaven.
 The sacraments are also entrusted to the Church. Christ gave the sacraments to the
Church so that the Church could dispense them to the faithful.
 The sacraments dispense divine life. People who receive the sacraments actually share in
the divine life of God. His presence enters into their souls, He helps them to live the
Christian life, and He saves them so that they may reach eternal life.

Sacraments are not performed in isolation. The Church has a mission to offer a special type of
life and a special type of a memory. It brings to memory the event of Jesus Christ and invites us
to become part of this.

How is Sacraments culture?

The Seven Sacraments were created by the Catholic Church. Each one celebrates passages of the
human life journey by religious symbols and religious rituals.
Eucharist (Body of Christ)
Anointing of the Sick

What is the most important passage of human life journey that this sacrament celebrates?
The most important passage of human life journey that Baptism celebrates is to make us apart of
the society, and having us belong in Jesus’ community. It’s also a time for rebirth. It changes our
relationship with God forever. We are welcomed into Jesus’ life.

What is the history of this sacrament?

The history of this sacrament is when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Jesus
once said ‘’Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of
water and spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit”
What are the three purposes of the Sacraments?
1. To make us holy; (move from secular into the experience of sacred transcendence).
2. To build the body of Christ (Catholic Community)
3. To give praise and worship to God (build and maintain Catholic Culture
Who created the sacraments
They have been instituted by Christ and entrusted by the Church. The early Church continued to
do what Jesus had done; (celebrate the Last Supper using Jesus’ words and actions, baptize new
covenants in the name of Jesus, anoint with oil new members as a sign of the Holy Spirit, laid
their hands on the heads of their new leaders, Bishops). Overtime, communities started to
develop a tradition in which they would use the same words and actions which became
formalized symbols and rituals, that we call sacraments. These same words and actions are still
part of World Wide Catholic Culture.

The Seven Sacraments

The Catholic Church recognizes seven sacraments:

 Baptism
 Eucharist
 Confirmation
 Reconciliation
 Anointing of the sick
 Marriage
 Holy Orders

THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

In BAPTISM, God's saving grace, His very presence, enters into the human soul. The
essential rite of baptism is very simple. The person celebrating the sacrament (usually a
priest) says 'I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit' while pouring water over the head of the person receiving the sacrament or dipping
the person in water. For Catholics, baptism is the sacrament of salvation and the door to
all other sacraments.

By: Scott P. Richert

The Sacrament of Baptism is often called "The door of the Church," because it is the
first of the seven sacraments not only in time (since most Catholics receive it as infants)
but in priority since the reception of the other sacraments depends on it. It is the first of
the three Sacraments of Initiation, the other two being the Sacrament of
Confirmation and the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Once baptized, a person
becomes a member of the Church. Traditionally, the rite (or ceremony) of baptism was
held outside the doors of the main part of the church, to signify this fact.
The Necessity of Baptism

Christ Himself ordered His disciples to preach the Gospel to all nations and to baptize those who
accept the message of the Gospel. In His encounter with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), Christ made
it clear that baptism was necessary for salvation: "Amen, amen I say to thee unless a man be born
again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." For Catholics, the
sacrament is not a mere formality; it is the very mark of a Christian because it brings us into a
new life in Christ.

The Effects of the Sacrament of Baptism

Baptism has six primary effects, which are all supernatural graces:

1. The removal of the guilt of both Original Sin (the sin imparted to all mankind by the Fall
of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) and personal sin (the sins that we have
committed ourselves).
2. The remission of all punishment that we owe because of sin, both temporal (in this world
and in Purgatory) and eternal (the punishment that we would suffer in hell).
3. The infusion of grace in the form of sanctifying grace (the life of God within us);
the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the three theological virtues.
4. Becoming a part of Christ.
5. Becoming a part of the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ on earth.
6. Enabling participation in the sacraments, the priesthood of all believers, and the growth
in grace.

The Form of the Sacrament of Baptism

While the Church has an extended rite of Baptism which is normally celebrated, which includes
roles for both parents and godparents, the essentials of that rite are two: the pouring of water over
the head of the person to be baptized (or the immersion of the person in water); and the words "I
baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

The Minister of the Sacrament of Baptism

Since the form of baptism requires just the water and the words, the sacrament, like the
Sacrament of Marriage, does not require a priest; any baptized person can baptize another. In
fact, when the life of a person is in danger, even a non-baptized person—including someone who
does not himself believe in Christ—can baptize, provided that the person performing the baptism
follows the form of baptism and intends, by the baptism, to do what the Church does—in other
words, to bring the person being baptized into the fullness of the Church.

In certain cases where a baptism has been performed by an extraordinary minister—that is,
someone other than a priest, the ordinary minister of the sacrament—a priest may later perform a
conditional baptism. A conditional baptism, however, would only be performed if there were
grave doubt about the validity of the original application of the sacrament—for instance, if a
nontrinitarian formula were used, or if the baptism had been performed by a non-baptized person
who later admitted that he did not have the proper intention.A conditional baptism is not a
"rebaptism"; the sacrament can only be received once. And a conditional baptism cannot be
performed for any reason other than grave doubt about the validity of the original application—
for instance, if a valid baptism has been performed, a priest cannot perform a conditional baptism
so that family and friends can be present.As discussed above, the form of the Sacrament of
Baptism has two essential elements: the pouring of water over the head of the person to be
baptized (or the immersion of the person in water); and the words "I baptize you in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."In addition to these two essential elements,
however, the person performing the baptism must intend what the Catholic Church intends in
order for the baptism to be valid. In other words, when he baptizes "in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," he must mean in the name of the Trinity, and he must
intend to bring the person being baptized into the fullness of the Church.

THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

The Holy EUCHARIST refers to Christ's body and blood present in the consecrated host on the
altar, and Catholics believe that the consecrated bread and wine are actually the body and blood,
soul and divinity of Christ.

Origin of the Holy Eucharist

Church teaching[1][2][3] places the origin of the Eucharist in the Last Supper of Jesus with his
disciples, at which he is believed to have taken bread and given it to his disciples, telling them to
eat of it, because it was his body, and to have taken a cup and given it to his disciples, telling
them to drink of it because it was the cup of the covenant in his blood.[4]

The earliest extant written account of a Christian eucharistia (Greek: thanksgiving) is that in the
First Epistle to the Corinthians (around AD 55),[5] in which Paul the Apostle relates "eating the
bread and drinking the cup of the Lord" in the celebration of a "Supper of the Lord" to the Last
Supper of Jesus some 25 years earlier.[6] Paul considers that in celebrating the rite they were
fulfilling a mandate to do so.[7] The Acts of the Apostles presents the early Christians as
meeting for “the breaking of bread” as some sort of ceremony.[8]

Writing around the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr gives the oldest description of
something that can be recognised as the rite that is in use today, according to K.W. Noakes.[9]
Earlier sources, the Didache, 1 Clement and Ignatius of Antioch provide glimpses of what
Christians were doing in their eucharists. Later sources, Tertullian and the Apostolic Tradition,
offer some details from around the year 200.[10] Once the Church "went public" after the
conversion of Constantine the Great in the second decade of the fourth century, it was clear that
the Eucharist was established as a central part of Christian life.[10]
Contemporary scholars debate whether Jesus meant to institute a ritual at his Last Supper;[11]
whether the Last Supper was an actual historical event in any way related to the undisputed early
"Lord's Supper" or "Eucharist"[12] and have asked if the Eucharist had its origins in a pagan
context, where dinners to memorialize the dead were common

*First Communion is taken to 7 years Old

*The earliest known use of the term "transubstantiation" to describe the change from bread and
wine to body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist was by Hildebert de Lavardin, Archbishop of
Tours, in the 11th century. By the end of the 12th century the term was in widespread use.

*But according to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus prepared for the Last Supper on the "first day of
Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb.

Where did the word Eucharist come from?

"sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the Communion," mid-14c., from Old French eucariste, from
Late Latin eucharistia, from Greek eukharistia "thanksgiving, gratitude," later "the Lord's
Supper," from eukharistos "grateful," from eu "well" (see eu-) + stem of kharizesthai "show
favor," from kharis "favor, grace," from PIE ...

THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION

Confirmation is the sacrament by which Catholics receive a special outpouring of the Holy
Spirit. Through Confirmation, the Holy Spirit gives them the increased ability to practice
their Catholicfaith in every aspect of their lives and to witness Christ in every situation.